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That's what I have been doing more often than not nowadays. There are many movies I would have used my Blockbuster account to rent either by mail or in store that I have just waited until they come on the "free" premium channels. I don't buy rentals from Comtastic unless they happen to give me free rental coupons. Next time they mess up and won't give me a $20 credit and offer a movie channel free again I will just ask for rental coupons. I currently have every channel they offer, oh except I don't have The Movie Channel and they recelntly started broadcasting that in HD in my area and have added the HD content as well, so.......

Cheep HD-DVD alert. I recently ordered Bubble, District B13 and Purple Rain from this seller on half.com. Apparently they are just the discs and no cases or cover art? I haven't received my 1st order of Bubble yet so I will let you all know the quality and what is included. If you are looking at just replacing discs or having a backup or don't care about the cover art then this might be a good deal for you. They still have several fairly rare titles and many I don't own (but don't care to at this time). It's either someone dumping a collection that got rid of cases to save space or they did the red to blue upgrade, but many of the ones listed were not eligible for those promotions. I have no idea what other gems were in there before I found them.

OT but loosely related to the rental talk. Redbox is slipping this week. Thor: The Dark World didn't show up anywhere in my county.

I don't think this is related to Redbox. Very short supply here as well. The last several Disney releases have had fulfillment issues as of late. I'm not sure what the issue is possibly weather, supply chain or manufacturing issues or a combination of them. They grossly underestimated the popularity of Planes when it was released and for a week or so you could flip copies for a nice profit if you were one of the lucky few that pre-ordered from Toys-R-Us and went to get your reserved copy early.

BTW - Bubble arrived with case and artwork and in perfect condition. I spoke to the seller and he said that he listed all of his as not having cases or art work, but several do or he at least has the art work. Thought I would let you all know. I was going to buy a few more, but I need to curtail my spending on my collection after a big binge recently ;-)

I can confirm that Bubble HD will not play on the 5k. You can get to the menu, but there are no selections or a way to play the movie. WIll have to get the A35 out storage or try the BH200 for this movie. I got it for .75 plus shipping which was an insane deal.

Passed on Planes as I realized that Lee & Jackson won't sit still long enough to watch it; so, it's really for me.

Now starz has it on Demand, FREE, or, rather, no extra charge.

I tend to buy almost all of the Disney's especially the classics. And of course Pixar. We should own stock in Disney. We bought many VHS tapes back in the day for the kids that all went to charity when we moved a couple years ago and then we did buy some of the movies on DVD but not too many. Now I have bought just about every Disney classic and not so classic animated and some of the live action ones as well on BD/BD-DVD combo. Guess I will be buying them all in the next format also for the grandkids.

Mr Kludge it looks like I am have problems with fast 6 again did you ever try it on ours?

No problems here. I have not played it all the way through, but I have chapter skipped and high speed ff through both versions. Is there a particular spot where you are experiencing problems? If it is always in a specific spot it could be a disc issue if it is random it would be a loader issue. Also is it with a specific version of the film that has issues? This is a branched disc, so that could be an issue.

It was freezing around the 30 min mark before I did the hard reset after that it started skipping in different places then it originally froze on its really weird

Probably a bad disc or loader. Is the disc dirty at all? Random freezes are usually always loader related. I would also suggest cleaning your laser with a cleaning disc and/or open it up and brute force clean it with a lint free swab and some freon(TF) or 100% alcohol. Could be a sign that your loader is going. but I have seen plenty of loaders that just have an issue with one particular disc or a couple. I still have my original one that won't play Wallace and Grommet and possibly some other Lionsgate discs but afaIK will play just about anything else. Got another one that only has issues with really long dual layer discs (typically over 2-2.5 hours long).

If it's just that one disc you have issues with then it's probably just the particular disc or pressing batch. Do you own it or renting? If you own it you might try a rental and if that works take back the one that is not working. BTW - the one I have is the steel box version, but I am sure that it is that same as the regular and I bet the rental lacks some features and may not have both versions of the movie (Theatrical and Extended).

Yea it's just this discussion I am having troubles with and now that I think about it it does the same thing with fast 5. I just watch man of steel with no problems I have 2 other 5000 s and they both play fine I think it's just a picky loader

Samsung does not seem to support their Bluray players very long. The last update on the 5000 two years after it was released and then they dropped it. I purchased my parents a Samsung Bluray player they supporeted it for 4 years then nothing, I have a second Samsung Bluray player and the same thing nothing going into the 4th year.

Then I was at a garage sale and found an old Sony Bluray player for 20 dollars with the remote. It worked at the sale so I took it home and tried a current movie and it wouldn't play it. Did an update and it plays everything and the player is about 7 years old. I have never been much of a Sony fan but was happy to see that. So I replaced my parent crap Samsung with a new Sony and expect it to be working for quite a while.

No more Samsung for me and I bash them every review site I come across. I am on my third extended warranty repair for my Samsung player. Two 6500's and a 5900 have all died on me they must make the worst players out there, besides Toshiba. The shop where I buy my equipment at said I can swap the 6500 out for a different manufacturer. I think I will go with Panasonic next time or maybe a Sony. I am still shocked I purchased anything made by Sony. Still have a Samsung 5300 but it will go in my camping gear for this upcoming summer.

Anybody have any suggestions what is good for current Bluray players? I am actually thinking of going with an Oppo for my main system.

Samsung does not seem to support their Bluray players very long. The last update on the 5000 two years after it was released and then they dropped it. I purchased my parents a Samsung Bluray player they supporeted it for 4 years then nothing, I have a second Samsung Bluray player and the same thing nothing going into the 4th year.

Then I was at a garage sale and found an old Sony Bluray player for 20 dollars with the remote. It worked at the sale so I took it home and tried a current movie and it wouldn't play it. Did an update and it plays everything and the player is about 7 years old. I have never been much of a Sony fan but was happy to see that. So I replaced my parent crap Samsung with a new Sony and expect it to be working for quite a while.

No more Samsung for me and I bash them every review site I come across. I am on my third extended warranty repair for my Samsung player. Two 6500's and a 5900 have all died on me they must make the worst players out there, besides Toshiba. The shop where I buy my equipment at said I can swap the 6500 out for a different manufacturer. I think I will go with Panasonic next time or maybe a Sony. I am still shocked I purchased anything made by Sony. Still have a Samsung 5300 but it will go in my camping gear for this upcoming summer.

Anybody have any suggestions what is good for current Bluray players? I am actually thinking of going with an Oppo for my main system.

Thanks
John

I've gone through a couple of Panasonic players in recent years and both had the drive mechanism fail not long after the standard warranty had expired :-( So I have ruled them out.

I got an Oppo BDP-93 for my main system a number of years ago and it is still performing flawlessly. On occasion I have had questions for Oppo and quickly found the answers either on their website or via an email to customer service. I found the replies came quickly and were useful. Oppo is also more informative than most companies when they post the notes on what is changed in a firmware update. There are also relatively inexpensive add-ons which allow the Oppo to be region-free for Blu-Ray, which I find useful as there are a number of discs which have never been released for North America.

I have considered getting a newer Oppo but have not quite convinced myself to spend the money. What I have done instead is to get a Monoprice Redmere cable and snaked the 2nd Oppo HDMI output into my bedroom so that if I wish to watch a Region B Blu-Ray there I can just put it on the Oppo :-) I still haven't gotten around to getting a 3-D capable HDTV as my old one just keeps chugging along.

Samsung does not seem to support their Bluray players very long. The last update on the 5000 two years after it was released and then they dropped it. I purchased my parents a Samsung Bluray player they supporeted it for 4 years then nothing, I have a second Samsung Bluray player and the same thing nothing going into the 4th year.

Then I was at a garage sale and found an old Sony Bluray player for 20 dollars with the remote. It worked at the sale so I took it home and tried a current movie and it wouldn't play it. Did an update and it plays everything and the player is about 7 years old. I have never been much of a Sony fan but was happy to see that. So I replaced my parent crap Samsung with a new Sony and expect it to be working for quite a while.

No more Samsung for me and I bash them every review site I come across. I am on my third extended warranty repair for my Samsung player. Two 6500's and a 5900 have all died on me they must make the worst players out there, besides Toshiba. The shop where I buy my equipment at said I can swap the 6500 out for a different manufacturer. I think I will go with Panasonic next time or maybe a Sony. I am still shocked I purchased anything made by Sony. Still have a Samsung 5300 but it will go in my camping gear for this upcoming summer.

Anybody have any suggestions what is good for current Bluray players? I am actually thinking of going with an Oppo for my main system.

Thanks
John

Sorry to say but you are mistaken about Samsung support for the 5000. We got a new update (1.7) just last October. They seem to slowly continue to release updates for it. There are now only a handful, if that of discs that won't play on the 5k now. I don't have experience with any other Samsung BD player so I can't comment there, but they do seem to have more issues than others. It might be that way since they seem to sell a lot more players than anyone else. From my own experience I also quite like Sony players as well. I had an early on something like the BD200 or some such model that I gave to my daughter and my now ex son-in-law for a wedding present. They continue to release updates and Sony loaders seem to be pretty much bullet proof unlike many other brands. I always hear good things about Oppo, but they have always been too rich for my blood. I also own a high end Yammy DVD-A/SACD/BD player that has been pretty good.

I would stay away from Panny players. They seem to have as many loader failures as the Samsungs. Pioneer might be a better bet, but since they sell way fewer players support may be lackluster? I would not feel bad about owning a Sony product. I have owned many Sony things in the past; at least 3 turntables, a cassette player, the mentioned BD player, and a couple other things. As far as I know all of that equipment is still running to this day. When I was a kid I always wanted the Sony, but often would go with the Techniques or other brand to save some bucks and was always regretful that I did so. When I bought my 2nd CD player (my 1st was a NAD) I went with the Techniques since I could get it way cheeper and it had more features. At one point after I got married the drive drawer stopped working and I never could figure out what the problem was and it went to the landfill when we moved a couple years ago.

Happy hunting. I still think that a used working 5K for a song on eBay would serve anyone quite well. The load times have actually increased with recent releases, though not up to snuff with the really fast newer ones. The PQ is very hard to beat and it still plays HD-DVDs which can be had for very cheep these days (unless you are looking for the super rare titles). Also upscaling of DVD is still quite amazing with this player.

Samsung still owes us an update to fix; Chaplin, Splice(rental), Superman/Batman Apocalypse and the US release of Thir13en Ghosts and Bubble HD-DVD. Somehow all of these somewhat obscure releases escaped all the other updates. Personally the only one that affects me is Bubble HD since I have the retail release of Splice which plays fine and the UK release of Thir13en Ghosts which also plays fine.

I don't have any recent experience with hardware support for the 5K, but I am sure for a price that Samsung will still fix them?

Nebraska loads and plays without any issues. Also one of the best films I have seen in a long time. The bit with the teeth is one of the best parts of the movie. That and the ending, but I won't ruin it for all of you that have not seen it. Too bad it got snubbed at the Oscars it is more deserving than most of the crap that won awards. Should have at least won best Cinematography over Gravity. After all it did not have to win ALL of the technical awards and some others. Also Bruce Dern's performance is pretty amazing.

I haven't posted or tested in a while. Without going into details... I have my Samsung combo player back now. I haven't hooked it up, as my Sony Blu-ray player works with everything I throw at it except for HD-DVDs... but I eventually play to re-incorporate my Samsung player in my AVR setup at some point so I can test it and also to play some HD-DVDs that I still have that aren't on Blu yet.

I don't normally post about HD playability, but I have acquired quite a few this past week; Jailhouse Rock, Viva Las Vegas, The Wild Bunch, Adventures of Robin Hood, Freedom Writers, The Matador, Grand Prix, and the Amateurs all load up and play. I am having some issues with Grand Prix about half way into the movie it has some issues right before the intermission. I can play the disc in my LG and A35 with no issues so I don't think it is the disc. It is either my loader being picky or could be a 5K issue. I haven't grabbed my project player out of storage to verify. I might do that this coming weekend. The Santana concert that I acquired from the same source has issues on all of my players. There are a bunch of other titles I got from the same source a while back and all of them appear fine, except for Santana. If I recall right I also picked up Purple Rain, Bubble, District B13, and P.S. I Love You from them all of those play fine except for Bubble of course. I have to use the A35 or LG for that one since it is just about the only domestic HD that still won't play in the 5K. I also picked up For the Love of the Game recently since Sanchos post reminded me that I never picked that one up. It was always expensive and still is. I was lucky and got one for just under $7 shipped. It's scratched up, but plays fine.

Sancho. BTW that reminds me that I keep trying your defective discs in my players. Haven't tried in my surplus players yet, but no go in the 5K, LG or A35 for Dukes…. However I can get Charlie and the Chocolate… to load up just fine in the LG and A35, but then a wayze into the movie it starts freezing up. I will try them in a couple other players when I get them out to test Grand Prix.

I have only recently started running into HDs that won't play. Makes me wonder how many duds I have in my collection. I may never know. I could probably watch a different movie every week or maybe two a week and never get through them all in my lifetime. My latest binge has been on Criterions. I have collected a half dozen or more of those recently also. Probably have 4 dozen or more of those now. You can go broke fast collecting those.

Criterion will empty your wallets fast! It's a shame about the snail's pace that mainly Universal is taking to release the last HD DVDs in BD. With the release of 12 Years A Slave, for instance, you'd think they'd want to unleash Talk To Me (to capitalize on Chiwetel Ejiofor's success in a leading role...must be the foreign-sounding name that's held him back so long).